A Montreal man has been charged with murder after his nine-year-old daughter’s body was found in Upstate New York on Sunday following an Amber Alert, according to New York State Police.
On Monday morning, New York State Police Capt. Robert McConnell told reporters that 45-year-old Luciano Frattolin has been charged with murder in the second degree and concealment of a corpse in connection to the death of Melina Frattolin.
Later in the day, Frattolin made an appearance in court where he pleaded not guilty to both charges. He remained in custody with his next court appearance scheduled for Friday.
The two had initially travelled into the U.S. on July 11, for a vacation that would see them visit Connecticut and New York City before they came into upstate New York on Saturday.
Melina was expected to back with her mom in Montreal on Sunday but police received a call from a man reporting his nine-year-old daughter missing from the area of Exit 22 of I-87 in Lake George, possibly due to an abduction, on Saturday just before 10 p.m.
“So the suspect’s initial account is that he pulled over in the area of exit 22 in Lake George. Pulled over into a parking lot to urinate,” McConnell said.
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“His initial report (was that) as he steps away to a wooded area, returns the vehicle, and at that point, his child is gone from the vehicle. He reports a suspicious white van fleeing the scene southbound during a subsequent interview. He then reports two unknown males forced her into a white van.”
The state trooper said, “That lead was thoroughly investigated and disproven.”
While McConnell would not get into the specifics he alleged that Frattolin attempted to hide her body in the woods in Ticonderoga, about 50 kilometres northeast of Lake George near the New York-Vermont border.
“On Sunday, July 20th, a search detail comprised of officers from multiple agencies conducted an organized search in the town of Ticonderoga, New York in the area, Mr. Frattolin was suspected of having visited,” he said. ”During that search detail at approximately 10:50, members of the New York State Police Forest Rangers located Melina deceased in the shallow portion of a pond.”
The felony complaint filed by prosecutors during Friday’s court apepar alleged that “he had concealed her body by positioning her under a log in a waterway.”
McConnell told reporters that her cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy which is expected to be conducted on Monday.
The captain told reporters that Frattolin did not have a criminal history nor were there any apparent issues with regards to mental health.
“The mother and Mr. Frattolin had been estranged since 2019,” McConnell said. “The child resided full time with her mother and Frattolin visited with the child when in Canada.”
Frattolin is the owner of Gambella Coffee, a coffee import business in Montreal. According to his bio on the website, Luciano “met with an unfortunate event that severely affected his well-being” in 2019 and that was when he turned to the coffee business.
It also declared that Melina was “the light of his life, she is the inspiration for… well, everything.”
*With file from The Canadian Press
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